1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nano-scale light emitting diode (LED) electrode assembly emitting polarized light, a method of manufacturing the same, and a polarized LED lamp having the same, and more particularly, to a nano-scale LED electrode assembly that emits polarized light, in which partially polarized light close to light that is linearly polarized in one direction is emitted when a driving voltage is applied to the nano-scale LED electrode assembly, while light extraction efficiency is simultaneously maximized and a nano-scale LED device is connected to a nano-scale electrode assembly without defects such as an electrical short circuit, etc. a method of manufacturing the same, and a polarized LED lamp having the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been actively developed, for example, by Nakamura of the Japanese Nichia Co., who succeeded in fusing a high-quality single crystal gallium-nitride (GaN) semiconductor by applying a low-temperature GaN compound buffer layer in 1992. An LED is a semiconductor having a structure in which an n-type semiconductor crystal in which majority carriers are electrons and a p-type semiconductor crystal in which majority carriers are holes which come in contact with each other using a characteristic of a compound semiconductor, and is a semiconductor device in which an electrical signal is converted into light having a wavelength band of a desired region. Regarding LEDs, Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0121743 discloses a method of manufacturing an LED, and an LED manufactured according thereto.
LED semiconductors have low energy consumption because of their great light conversion efficiency, have a semi-permanent lives, and are eco-friendly green devices, and thus have been called revolutionary in the field of light. Recently, due to developments in compound semiconductor technology, high-intensity red, orange, green, blue, and white LEDs have been developed, and such LEDs are being applied in various fields such as traffic lights, mobile phones, automobile headlights, outdoor billboards, liquid crystal display (LCD) back light units (BLUs), interior and exterior lighting, etc., and active studies are continuously progressing both in Korea and elsewhere. In particular, the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor having a wide bandgap is a material used for manufacturing LED semiconductors emitting light in the green, blue, and ultraviolet regions, and many studies thereon are progressing because blue LED devices can be used to manufacture white LED devices.
Among this series of studies, studies using nano-scale LED devices in which the sizes of the LEDs are manufactured in nano-scale or micro-scale units are actively progressing, and studies on applying nano-scale LED devices to lightings, displays, etc. are also progressing. Aspects that have continuously received attention in such studies relate to an electrode which is able to apply power to a nano-scale LED device, an application purpose, an electrode arrangement for decreasing a space occupied by an electrode, and a method of installing a nano-scale LED in an arranged electrode, etc.
Among these, the method of installing a nano-scale LED in an arranged electrode still has a problem that it is difficult to arrange and install a nano-scale device on an electrode as desired due to size limitations of nano-scale LED devices. This is because nano-scale LED devices cannot be arranged and installed in a desired electrode region by hand one by one due to the nano-scale or micro-scale sizes of nano-scale LED devices.
Further, even when a nano-scale LED device is installed in a desired electrode region, it is very difficult to control the number of nano-scale LED devices and the positional relationship between the nano-scale LED devices and the electrode included in a unit electrode region as desired, and when LED devices are arranged on a two-dimensional plane, it is difficult to obtain an excellent amount of light because the number of LED devices included in the unit electrode region is limited. Further, it is difficult to obtain a desired amount of light because not every LED device connected to two different electrodes is able to emit light without defects such as an electrical short circuit, etc.
In order to solve this problem, the inventor(s) of the present invention disclosed a manufacturing method of implementing a nano-scale LED device as an electrode assembly by applying power to a nano-scale electrode line, and a nano-scale LED electrode assembly using the same in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1490758, but the nano-scale LED device is not aligned as desired because the electrode assembly is implemented with self-alignment of the nano-scale LED device, and the nano-scale LED electrode assembly having irregular device directivity and connected to different electrodes is implemented, and thus it is difficult to install the nano-scale LED at a desired level and it is difficult to obtain the desired amount of light.
In order to solve this problem, the inventor(s) of the present invention recognized that a nano-scale LED electrode assembly emits partially polarized light close to light that is linearly polarized in one direction and also that an intensity of the emitted light is remarkably increased when the device is installed on an electrode with constant directivity through continued studies for improving alignment when LED devices are installed on an electrode, thus completing present invention.